The Great War
by The Physicist
Summary: Harrison is back and he's not planning on retiring to Risa. The crew of the Enterprise may be humanity's last hope. (Eventually Kirk/Spock) [A/N: to avoid spoiling STiD for people, actual title and slightly longer summary are in the first chapter]
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** Harrison is back and he's not planning on retiring to Risa. The crew of the _Enterprise_ may be humanity's last hope as the return of the augments incites the Second Eugenics War.

**Beta reader: **LJ user Siluria.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Star Trek or any of its characters, Paramount does, and didn't create them either, Roddenberry did.

**Author's note:** This is still a WIP, so the warnings might change for later chapters. Spoilers for Star Trek into Darkness.

** – The Second Eugenics War – Chapter 1 – **

"Ambassador, I can assure you, Khan and all the other augments from the _Botany Bay_ are constantly monitored. This is a secure facility!" Admiral Darbo said as he strode through the wide hanger doors to the holding bay containing the cryogenic pods. Ambassador Spock was at his heels.

"Well, you must forgive an old Vulcan his foibles."

Darbo gave Spock a questioning look, but said no more until they had reached the exact pod they had come to inspect.

"Here it is," the Admiral said before wiping the condensation off the outside of the cryo chamber to reveal the occupant's pale, angular face.

"This," Spock stated before looking up and fixing his eyes on Darbo's, "is not Khan Noonien Singh.

**###**

_Two weeks later._

"When you and your crew beat me, I briefly considered whether maybe I was not as superior as I had thought. Maybe the human race had evolved in some way since I'd been frozen." John Harrison's words sent a shiver down Jim's spine, although he'd listened to this recording over a dozen times already.

"You are all just as weak as I remember though. The evidence of this is staring you in the face right now: I'm awake again. You should have killed me when you had the chance. No, really, you should have. Now someone else hopes to use me as their pawn. I think you have some idea how that might work out for them. Goodbye, James T. Kirk."

On the small screen in Jim's quarters, Harrison's face was replaced by the Starfleet logo. And Jim groaned. He'd received the communication less than an hour ago and had already watched it multiple times. Last week Admiral Darbo had reported that the augments had all vanished from their pods. Ever since Kirk had been dreading that Harrison would get in contact. At least he hadn't gotten in contact via beaming a photon torpedo into the engine room.

"Tell me, Spock," he asked the only other person in the room, "what should I make of this? Who is John Harrison even?"

Spock took a step closer so that he was standing next to Jim, at his desk. "An augment. One of the 73 people that were found onboard the _Botany Bay_."

"Yes, but those augments, they included tyrants and war criminals. Khan is among them, but Harrison is not him. Your counterpart confirmed that."

"Someone has freed all the augments—beamed them right out of their pods using the trans-warp beaming equation, to be exact. Yet I have noticed that you have been especially preoccupied by Harrison's true identity. Why?" Spock asked.

Jim turned away from the screen, walked over to a bookshelf, and grabbed an old-style paper book.

"In here," he said, waving the book in front of his first officer's face, "is some of the history of the Eugenics wars. It chronicles the rise of Khan Noonien Singh, who's empire stretched all the way from Shanghai to Melbourne to Beirut—and the rise of his greatest rival, Harrison Vear, ruler of the Second British Empire. Khan was a tyrant who gave his citizens no freedom at all. But he gained control of over 40 Earth nations and managed them without a single massacre. There was no civil unrest. A fascinating man! Vear on the other hand slaughtered people in the millions. He treated those who weren't augments as if they weren't actually people."

"You suspect, then, that John Harrison is Vear?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure. Why would he pretend to be Khan?" Jim put the book back. "I guess it hardly matters, as we already know what Harrison is capable of, and what his views on non-augments are. But-"

Spock raised an eyebrow to prompt Jim to continue.

"But if I have to face him again, I want to know as much about Harrison as possible." Jim stood in front of Spock and narrowed his eyes slightly. "And I will not let him use me as some kind of puppet."

"I'm sorry I cannot offer a solution to that particular problem," Spock replied, eliciting a snort from Jim, "I suggest though that we analyze this recording in detail to pinpoint from where it was sent, and when."

Jim nodded his head. "Agreed. Sort that out, Spock. In the meantime I'll be on the bridge. We should be coming into orbit around our first unexplored planet soon. Maybe we will be able to do some actual exploring for once."

**###**

The planet's surface was windy, but the air still had a stale taste to it. They'd measured large contents of ferric oxide particles in the atmosphere before landing, so the sky's color was no surprise, but nonetheless the bright scarlet dome overhead took Jim's breath away.

_Nothing like a new world to take my thoughts off Harrison,_ Jim thought.

A small team up on the ship was analyzing the message he'd been sent. Nothing he could do until they'd finished. He took his eyes off the sky and checked his away team were okay. He'd taken two security personnel, Spock, and Carol down with him. She was still science division after all.

"Dr. Marcus, is anything wrong?"

Carol was staring down at her tricorder, her brow furrowed. Jim glanced at the others as he hurried over to her, removing his own tricorder from his belt mid stride—Carol wasn't the only one worried.

"Down!" Spock shouted.

Weapons light zipped overhead accompanied by a buzzing sound as they all threw themselves into the sand. Jim and Carol were about an arm's length away from one another.

"It's coming from over there," Carol said, indicating to the right with her head.

"Everyone get behind those boulders!" Jim shouted. He hoisted his phaser out of its holder and started firing in retaliation.

As they scrambled to safety Jim saw a woman from security go down. Spock had his communicator out and was hailing the _Enterprise_.

Jim grabbed it off him. "Scotty, get us out of here!"

A flash of blinding red light lit up Jim's vision.

**###**

"He can't be waking up already, man, he took a disruptor shot to the chest!"

That was Bones, Jim was certain of it.

"Take a look for yourself," another voice cut in.

Footsteps.

Then, "Jim? Talk to me, kid."

When Jim opened his eyes a bit he could see Bones clearly. "Disruptor fire? Was it Klingons?"

"Shut up. I'm still healing your wounds. You should be dead from such a wound, you know that, right?"

"That's what you always say, Bones."

He closed his eyes again and let his friend treat him. The humming and beeping of the tricorders kept his mind in the present though. _Should be dead_. Was this one of Bones's usual exaggerations, or did he actually mean it? What had they done to him when they'd given him an infusion of Harrison's blood? It wasn't cold in sickbay, but he could feel his skin prickling as his hairs stood on end.

Finally the whirr of the medical instruments subsided. Jim tried to sit up, but Bones reached out to put a hand on his shoulder to gently coax him back down. "Not yet," the doctor said sternly.

"What happened? Where are the others?" Jim asked.

"I am right here, Captain."

Jim turned his head. Not six feet away from his bed Spock stood with his hands clasped behind his back.

"He still needs rest," Bones started to protest.

"Commander Spock, report," Jim said curtly.

He couldn't see, but he knew Bones was rolling his eyes. If the situation weren't so dire, that knowledge would have made him grin.

"A group of Klingons, Captain. We estimate about twenty on the planet. Presumably they have a ship in this sector, or even in orbit, but our scanners have not been able to pick up a signal so far."

"Any casualties?"

"Lieutenant Xu did not survive, sir."

_But I did_.

He clenched his jaw. "Check on the progress of the recording's analysis and find the Klingon ship." A hypospray was jabbed into his neck. "Ouch! Bones, was that really necessary?"

"No, I poke you with these things for fun. _Of course it was necessary!_"

"Help me up."

At that request Bones paused in what he was doing and Spock stepped closer.

Then a litany of "You should rest," and "Are you out of your goddamned mind?" along with other such curses and logical arguments followed his request.

Jim held up one of his hands. "Enough!" He fixed both his First Officer and his Chief Medical Officer in turn with a hard stare. "Someone out there is armed with both the trans-warp beaming equation and augments. We were just attacked by Klingons that seemingly got onto a planet without a ship that is really fucking far away from their homeworld—the one place off Earth that we know for sure Harrison visited. Now, are either of you going to let me report this directly to Admiral Darbo, or waste time fussing over this scratch on my chest?"

After saying all that he found himself panting. _Oh-oh. I shouldn't have said that last bit._ On cue his friends both continued their protestations. Eventually though they did fetch him a wheelchair.

**###**

Jim looked around the table in the conference room at his senior staff, only Scotty was missing.

He hit a key on a comm panel in front of him. "Mr Scott. Where ar-."

"I'm coming, I'm coming! Would ye rather I made sure the warp engines continue not to blow us out of time and space, splattering our atom fragments across the skies of half a dozen or so planets, or that I was on time for one wee video call?"

"Sir," Uhura said, "the admiral's call is coming in now."

"Put it on screen. Scotty, hurry up."

Admiral Darbo's face was glistening with sweat. "Captain Kirk, we received your message and have discussed its content in an emergency meeting. Have you since completed the analysis of the message Harrison sent you? Have you taken any of the Klingons on the planet into custody?"

Jim cleared his throat before speaking. His mouth felt dry. "The message came from Qo'noS. There is no doubt that Harrison was, at that time, on the Klingon homeworld. And we've captured none of the party that attacked us. We're no longer registering any Klingon lifesigns from the surface."

"You measured none before you beamed down, is that correct?"

"Yes sir. Our initial scan of the planet found it to be uninhabited."

"We will investigate whether there was a security breach here at Starfleet HQ as you requested."

"Thank you, Admiral. Very much appreciated."

Darbo sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't tell me Harrison's message came from Qo'noS. Anywhere but from there."

Jim became aware that his fingers were hurting. He'd clenched them into fists under the conference table.

"Send us a full report of that analysis. Immediately. If we verify your people's conclusions then I am not sure whether or not this might be taken as a full scale declaration of war with the Klingons."

"But sir!" Jim jumped up out of his wheelchair and immediately winced. Spock was at his side in under a second, stabilizing him. "These are Harrison's actions. We don't know if the Klingon High Command have any knowledge of his existence!"

"We have already dispatched a message informing them that Harrison is a convicted war criminal and requesting that they extradite him and all the other augments back to us. We should receive a reply shortly. I will keep you informed. In the meantime you must keep your shields up at all time, even when at warp."

"Understood," Jim wheezed as he sat down again slowly, Spock holding his shoulders tightly all the while.

"Good luck. Darbo out."

To be continued...

* * *

_A/N: Thanks to Nathalie for pointing out that screwed up my formatting. _


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary:** Harrison is back and he's not planning on retiring to Risa. The crew of the Enterprise may be humanity's last hope as the return of the augments incites the Second Eugenics War.

**Beta reader:** LJ user Siluria.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Star Trek or any of its characters, Paramount does, and didn't create them either, Roddenberry did.

**Author's note:** This is still a WIP, so the warnings might change for later chapters. Spoilers for Star Trek into Darkness.

**– The Second Eugenics War – Chapter 2 –**

Jim turned away from the console in his quarters and leant back in his chair with a groan. Still tender skin stretched across his ribcage, it twinged and protested with each movement. He closed his eyes. A bone deep tiredness had settled into his limbs and the thought of getting out of his chair to walk all the way to his bed—and to undress once there!—to contemplate all that was in itself already too exhausting.

Not even twenty four hours ago he'd been about to chart the surface of an unexplored planet. They'd been about to discover new things no Federation scientists had seen before! Now he was recovering from a disruptor blast to the chest. War with the Klingons loomed, as well as the return of the augments.

There was no way he was moving from his chair.

He was startled by the sound of his door chime. "Enter," he croaked. The opened doors revealed Spock's silhouette. "Come in, Spock."

Jim slapped himself mentally and sat upright. His heart quickened as Spock strode up to his desk.

"What's up?" Jim asked. "Has Darbo replied? Do we have new orders?"

Surely he'd drifted off for only a minute or so. Had he missed anything important?

Spock clasped his hands behind his lower back. "No, Captain. We've had no further communication from Starfleet headquarters. I came here when I received several messages from you. Doctor McCoy ordered you to rest."

"Are you going to tell on me?" Jim shot back. He sighed and closed his eyes again.

"Jim," Spock said as he walked around the desk to stand beside him. His voice pitched lower than usual when he continued, "we do not know yet what the next few days or even hours may bring. You should rest now, while you can."

A small smile spread across Jim's lips. He'd missed Spock. While the ship was being repaired and re-fitted Spock had taken leave of Starfleet to help with the new Vulcan colony. They'd sent each other a few vaguely formal messages, but that had been all there'd been time for. Each of them had been so busy with their own work.

"I'll be fine, Spock." To prove his point he hauled himself up onto his feet. "But yes, it's time for me to turn in. And I do appreciate your concern." The small smile had now become a fully-fledged grin.

Spock stared at him blankly. Then he seemed to come to a decision, as he nodded minutely. "Good night, Captain."

He was almost at the door when Jim let out a sharp hiss. Jim had taken a few steps in the right direction, but he'd turned his upper body to cast a quick glance back at Spock and that had pulled at the raw tissue of his healing wound.

Spock rushed over to his side. "Steady yourself on me."

Jim was in no position to refuse. "I'm fine," he grunted.

"I think your capability to analyze this situation objectively may be compromised."

That proclamation wrenched a stifled cough from Jim. "Don't you dare try and make me laugh! Do you have any idea how much that hurts?" But he was smiling.

When they got to the bed Jim gratefully flopped down onto it. "Is this it, Spock? The end of the Federation and of Starfleet as we know it?"

Spock joined him by sitting down on the edge of the bed. Jim furrowed his brow and propped himself up on his elbows to look up at his friend. This was the first time in over a year that he'd had the opportunity to actually talk with Spock in private.

"I dare not calculate the probabilities," Spock eventually said in a quiet voice. His eyes were fixed on a point off in the distance and Jim could only see his face in profile.

"That bad?"

Now Spock turned to look at him. "When I watched you die... ." His voice trailed off.

Jim felt a chill down his spine and his hands felt tingly. But he nodded for Spock to continue.

"I know how it must have appeared to you. You thought that I lost control of my emotions. That is not precisely true. For the majority of my life I struggled to control and tame my emotions. After Vulcan's destruction I noticed that the mental effort required to do so was diminishing."

"You slowly became really good at suppressing them?"

"That is what I thought. That was not the case though. I had been slowly purging myself of my emotions. Without realizing it I was performing what on Vulcan we call the Kolinahr. Through the Kolinahr we purge ourselves forever of the ability to experience emotion."

Jim exhaled sharply. A knot was forming in his throat. "All emotions?"

"I believe I had very nearly succeeded, too. Your death, however, shattered the Kolinahr process. And my control was no match for all the... hurt, pain, and anger, especially anger, that I carry around inside myself."

"When you went to the Vulcan colony did you try to complete the Kolinahr?"

Spock was silent. Jim bit his lip. He didn't know if the question had been too intrusive or not. Either way, Spock's earlier admission proved that even if he had attempted to rid himself of his emotions, he hadn't succeeded.

"Jim, it is imperative that whatever happens in the next few days, regardless of whether we find ourselves in the middle of a war, that I do not lose control. I am a Vulcan, an adherent to Surak's principles. Peace can only come to us through embracing logic and reasoning."

The renewed reminder of battles yet to come and what they might lose, or rather "who", caused a thick knot to form in Jim's throat. He stretched himself across the bed and grabbed Spock's hand. He grimaced at the pain the movement caused him. Additionally he wished the gesture had been a less clumsy one. Spock clenched his hand in Jim's. Then he stood up abruptly.

"If you do not require further assistance, you had best rest."

Jim nodded. "Go", he managed to say through the red hot pain around his heart.

Once he was alone he let out a small whimper and let the tears flow from his eyes. It wasn't only the physical pain. That alone he knew for sure he could bear relatively easily, since his wounds would heal quickly under Bones' care. All the thoughts and fears on his mind—now that Spock had left he had no one to share them with. The tears kept falling and his arms felt too heavy to lift to wipe them off his cheeks. Tomorrow he would have the strength to face the universe head on, but not tonight.

**###**

"Uhura to Captain Kirk."

Jim struggled to parse the meaning of those words at first. Then his brain kicked off the blanket of sleep completely.

"Kirk here. Report, Lieutenant!"

He hurriedly got dressed as she relayed the admiralty's message. They were ordered to fly to the edge of Klingon space and await further instructions there.

"Is that the entire message?"

"Yes, sir."

"Call the senior staff to a meeting in the conference room for 0600 hours. Try and contact headquarters to arrange a video call with Admiral Darbo."

He rushed through his morning routine—no time to shave—and gulped down a quick coffee on his way to the meeting.

Looking around the table he saw that Scotty had bags under his eyes, and Chekov's hair looked disheveled. Everyone apart from Spock showed signs of a restless night. When everyone was present he had Uhura repeat their orders to the others. The orders were greeted by silence. Jim felt the chill of the life support's air system on his brow, which was moistening with sweat.

"Anything from Admiral Darbo?" Jim asked.

Uhura shook her head. "No, sir. The request for a video call was denied. They want to limit communication to prevent Harrison intercepting orders."

A knot of dread formed heavy and cold in Jim's stomach. "I see. So we can't put a face to our orders."

"Wait," Sulu said, "are you implying what I think you are? Captain, are we not trusting headquarters anymore?"

Jim raised both his hands quickly. "I didn't say that. And we don't know for certain. I'm not sure what to think. Not after last time." At that admission of regret he cast his gaze downwards.

"So let me get this straight," Bones said, "Harrison has access to some ridiculously over-powered trans-warp beaming technology, he's got an army of augments supporting him this time, and for all we know he's already taken over Starfleet again?"

Jim nodded. "Yes, that's pretty much the situation we're in right now."

"So we're on our own fighting Harrison?" Sulu asked.

"Woah, hold on a minute, Sulu!" Bones cut in, but he turned to Jim to make his case. "What if Starfleet hasn't been infiltrated or been taken over by the augments? Surely we would have had some other indication if that were the case? What if Starfleet have a plan and they're relying on us to do our part in it? If we don't follow our orders we might be screwing up everything!"

"Or we might be walking right into a trap designed by Harrison," Uhura stated.

Everyone was silent for a while as they contemplated the options on the table.

Jim pulled at his shirt to straighten it. "We risk too much if we don't go—and we also risk too much if we do go. Spock, what is the logical course of action in such a situation?"

For a moment Jim wasn't sure if Spock was going to answer. He remembered Spock's words well enough from the night before, that he didn't want to calculate the probabilities. But he needed to know that he could rely on his first officer, regardless of the situation. Things would not be getting any easier from here on out.

Spock cocked one of his eyebrows. "Logically we should not go. Our chances of survival if we proceed to the coordinates in the message are approximately 3.4%."  
"Do I hear a 'but' ?" Jim pushed.

"There is little room in war for logic. If we are indeed at war with the augments and the Klingons, or even Starfleet itself, should it have fallen under augment control, then I think the most logical thing to do would be to trust your judgment."

Jim felt the tips of his ears burn bright. He coughed to clear his throat and give himself an additional couple of seconds to compose himself. High praise indeed from a Vulcan. That was not an answer he'd expected to hear to his question.

"I think we should go," Jim said. He nodded at Bones. "Doctor McCoy is right. For all we know this might be too important an order to disregard. We need to be prepared for the worst though. Any suggestions?"

Scotty leaned forward in his chair. "Well, I know we aren't technically meant to know the trans-warp beaming equation. But I haven't forgotten it, Cap'n. If it turns out Harrison has nabbed himself another one of the high ups, we could head for Earth and send someone ahead-"

"That would require us dropping our shields," Spock cut in. "I do not advise we do that under any circumstances. We must avoid the augments beaming abroad."

"You know what?" Bones said, "I mean, I'm a doctor, not a physicist, but I'm starting to think this whole trans-warp beaming thing is ridiculously overpowered. There must be some weaknesses this technology has. Some way to stop the augments just beaming themselves wherever the hell they like!"

Scotty held up his hand placatingly. "Doctor, if I may explain? It is my equation after all!"

"Anything you can tell us!" Jim said.

"Trans-warp beaming requires a ludicrous amount of power. When I beamed Jim and myself onto the Enterprise after escaping that ice planet, it near enough burned out the dilithium crystals of the old ship we'd been on. And the distances involved were huge, but not even close to the distance between Earth and Qo'noS! The device Harrison used to beam himself to Qo'noS contained two large burned out dilithium crystals."

Sulu tilted his head to one side. "Harrison sent a hoard of Klingons all the way out here and beamed them right back again. He clearly has all the power he needs at his fingertips."

"And we only have a few dilithium crystals," Uhura stated.

"Ah, yes," Scotty continued, "there's more. Trans-warp beaming makes use of a very narrow energy band in the lower sub space frequencies."

Uhura's eyes lit up. "We could send out an interference signal?"

Everyone started weighing in on the issue. When Jim had heard enough he cleared his throat. "Right! We'll continue this discussion later. Uhura, Scotty, start brainstorming for a way to cause maximum disruption to Harrison's trans-warp beaming capabilities. The larger the volume of space within which we can prevent trans-warp beaming the better.

"We'll proceed to the Klingon border with caution. I don't know what will await us there, but I feel we should be heading in that direction whatever."

Everyone around the table nodded in agreement with that. Jim was proud of every single one of them. And he felt a hot guilt settle in his stomach that he was taking them into danger once again. Harrison had sent him that message for a reason. But was it to goad him into tracking him down on Qo'noS? He refused to be Harrison's pawn. Nor did he want to trust his orders without question either. Not after what had happened last time.

To be continued...


	3. Chapter 3

Jim stared up at the ceiling in sickbay as Bones put him through yet another scan. He concentrated on his breathing and on staying rigidly still. It was hard not to fidget and twitch, because all he wanted to do was get back to work. He'd left Uhura, Scotty, Spock, Chekov, and Sulu down in engineering to work on ways to block Harrison from using trans-warp beaming. And time was quickly running out since they were dashing at maximum warp toward the Klingon border. Not a minute to lose.

"All clear," Bones said eventually.

Jumping up and off the bed Jim shook out his stiff muscles. Not moving at all required a surprising amount of effort.

Bones had gone over to a workstation and was hunched over a monitor there. No nurses were hovering around trying to get the doctor's attention. Jim pulled his shoulders back and tugged on his shirt to straighten it out. He couldn't avoid this forever.

"Bones?"

His friend lifted up one of his hands, without taking his eyes of the computer screen he was staring at. "Yes?"

Jim walked over to him and leant down so their heads were level. "Can we talk in your office?"

Bones immediately turned his head to face him. Some of the turmoil inside of Jim's mind must have leaked through into the tone of his voice or into his expression, because Bones simply whispered "okay" quietly in reply.

Once they were in the doctor's office and the door was closed Bones reached straight for the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out a bottle of Scotch and two tumblers.

Jim folded his arms across his chest. He looked at the floor to avoid meeting Bones' eyes. "So it's true. Something's up, isn't it? I should be dead. I'm healing too quickly." The only reply he got was the sound of the alcohol splashing into the drinking glasses. "Why didn't you say anything, Bones? Did you think I wouldn't notice? How many times have you had to patch me up? How many times have I lain in sickbay? I know the speed of my recovery this time is... miraculous."

Bones had come up to him and was holding out his glass. "We did what we had to do back on Earth, kid. What should we have done? We had the chance to bring you back." He sighed. "I can't say that I regret it."

As the doctor took a sip of his drink he peered over the edge of it at Jim who met his stare.

Jim gulped down the alcohol in his glass in one go. It stung all the way down his esophagus. "Will it wear off eventually?"

"I don't know, Jim. I'm looking into it. What's going through your mind now?"

Jim shrugged. "Not sure how I feel about it really." He clenched his jaw. "What if it makes me reckless?"

Bones snorted. "I'm not sure if it's actually possible for you to be more reckless. Now you have a higher chance of survival at least."

"What if I end up risking other people's lives unnecessarily because I don't have to fear death in the same way they do? Before... . When they took the Enterprise away from me Pike came to talk to me. He reminded me not to be overconfident and that the decisions I make could get everyone under my command killed." His hands shook minutely as he put his glass down and he hoped Bones didn't notice. "I've been on one-way missions before; I've had to face situations in which I thought I was going to die. But I'd never actually died before."

"Kid, I lost you on the operating table after your encounter with the Dragon creatures of Ceti Gamma X. Technically you were dead then too."

Slowly Jim nodded.

Bones folded his arms across his chest. "Not that I'm complaining about a modicum of sense having been knocked into your brain. Just don't let it all change you too much, Jim."

"Thanks." Jim forced a lopsided grin. "And now to stop Harrison from being able to trans-warp beam away from us!"

"So Scotty and Uhura came up with something?"

"Well, sort of," he said with a grin he didn't totally feel. I'd maybe add that it's a grin he didn't totally feel, otherwise there's a big change from technically shaking to grinning.

After leaving sickbay Jim swung by the mess to pick up a tray of sandwiches. He made sure to put a some coffee on it too. He sure needed at least one coffee before he could start working on this problem again—Uhura and Sulu would probably appreciate one too.

When he got down to engineering he found a load of PADDs all over the floor, on chairs, and on any flat surface of Scotty's work station. A lot of PADDs, but no people. He put his tray down and a young engineering ensign came up to him.

"Captain, Commander Scott and the others are in section 12."

Jim thanked her and dashed through the engine room and round a bend to get to section 12. There he found everyone standing in a circle with Scotty in the center of it.

"Captain," Spock said, looking over his shoulder. "Since we cannot afford to wait any longer, Mr. Scott is preparing a transportable trans-warp beaming device so that we may test our most promising solution."

Jim stepped next to him. "Test it? We can do that?" He looked over at Uhura. "The interference pattern is ready?"

"It is," she replied, "and it will work. The question is whether the deflector dish is capable of emitting the frequencies we require."

"There is a theory in advanced sub-space quantum-" Spock started explaining, but Scotty cut in.

"Cap'n, the deal is: we need to put some physics to the test. This might not work. But it's the only hope we have."

Jim nodded. "Mr. Spock, how much time will it cost us to test this?"

"We will have to detour slightly to a nearby moon or planet and drop out of warp. If we are quick, this should only take an hour."

An hour they couldn't really afford. What was better though? To hurry as fast as possible to the coordinates in case the Federation really needed them to save the day? Or to take care not to walk completely unprepared into a trap? He could feel everyone's expectant stares boring into him. The weight of them had the blood pumping hard around his body. Suddenly it felt hot and sticky in his uniform.

Eventually he nodded. "We'll test it."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Scotty do a small fist pump. When he looked round at Scotty he caught him grinning at Uhura—who was beaming back at him. Jim glanced at Spock. He seemed to have witnessed that interaction, but if he cared, he hid it well. When was the last time he'd seen Spock make Uhura look that happy? It might not even mean anything though, Jim told himself. He certainly had more important things to keep his mind on than the status of his first officer's relationship. Not that he'd forgotten the last time Uhura and Spock had argued. But they had all been under a lot of emotional stress and had all behaved out of line. He more so than anyone.

"So, what is this exactly?" he asked, pointing at the part of Scotty's trans-warp beaming device that was completely encased. It stood out like a sore thumb amongst the lose wires and electronics components.

"A mini-warp core," Scotty replied, standing tall and with obvious pride in his voice. "It's similar in design to what that portable trans-warp beaming device was equipped with."

"Why can't we use our warp core?" Jim asked.

"Aye, we could do that. But I dinnae think you'd want to risk damaging the large dilithium crystals it runs on. This one only has a small one inside it."

"Ideally we need more time-," Uhura said.

Jim shook his head. "I realize that. We don't have the luxury of time, though. I know you did the best you could."

What they were presenting him with was not the neat miracle solution he'd been hoping for, but it beat having nothing, even if it was dangerous as hell. If the test failed... then they would be in trouble. He didn't want to face Harrison without some sort of trick up his sleeve.

Jim kneeled down in front of the mini warp core and inspected it from all angles. The cladding was definitely keeping him from being able to peer inside, but he could see every seam. Although he trusted Scotty, it was hard not battle the feeling of cold dread rising in the pit of his stomach. He forced himself to act casual. "And that's not going to blow up on us?" he asked, scratching his head. "I mean, what are the risks to the ship if it does blow up?"

"I'd say the risks are pretty low. Of it blowing up, that is," Scotty replied.

Spock raised an eyebrow, Sulu was nodding his head, Chekov was biting his lip, and Scotty, Uhura, and Jim looked at each other.

"We'll put it on a shuttle when we test it," Scotty said. Everyone agreed.

Someone had to be on the shuttle though. A couple of hours later the portable trans-warp beaming device had been transferred to a shuttle. Health and safety would not have approved of the complete lack of paperwork and risk assessments carried out while moving the mini-warp core. Jim found himself fervently wishing for a universe in which dealing with Starfleet safety officers was in his future.

When the shuttle was ready to take off Jim darted in front of Scotty as the engineer tried to board it.

"I'll do this," Jim stated and instead of engaging with Scotty, he looked over his shoulder at Spock and addressed him instead. "Aren't you going to protest?"

The plan was to take the shuttle down to a moon, blast the moon with interference frequencies from their deflector dish, while at the same time attempting a trans-warp beaming. Shuttles were already more vulnerable than the ship, but add to that the matter of the mini-warp core and untested trans-warp beaming device, and you had the perfect set of circumstances to send a first officer into over-protective mode.

"I would protest, but you will likely simply ignore my words," Spock replied. "And we cannot waste time discussing this. Each second we are out of warp, is a second we must make full use of."

Scotty was having none of Spock's logic though. "Cap'n! Creating this interference field will be a huge drain on system power. I cannae guarantee that we'll be able to beam you out in time if something should go wrong."

"I realize that, Mr. Scott. But the ship needs you monitoring the warp core and the engines more than it needs me if we go into battle against the Klingons or Harrison."

He walked up to Spock and placed a hand on Spock's right shoulder. "Wish me luck and take care of the ship if I don't return."

It seemed as if Spock wanted to say something. In the end he only nodded though, his features an unreadable mask. Jim turned away and leaped into the shuttle. As the door was closing, Spock stepped up to the shuttle. Their eyes met.

"I'll be monitoring your vitals and will keep a lock on you with the transporter at all times."

There was no time to reply as the doors shut with a thud, but Jim closed his eyes briefly and took a few deep breaths. The reminder that people, that Spock, would care if didn't return weighed heavy in his stomach, while making his heart beat faster at the same time at the joy of being alive and being able to experience this world. Each breath was precious. He leapt up and threw himself into the pilot's seat.

To be continued...


	4. Chapter 4

**– The Second Eugenics War – Chapter 4 –**

Jim had always found it best to leap without looking, because if he listened to his mind rather than his gut, if he really thought about the possibility of dying on a mission, then he might hesitate or stall—as he was doing now. In front of him the shuttle controls blinked and beeped at him, untouched. He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the hammering of his heart. There was no point in delaying take off. It wasn't as if he could back out now. If he got off the shuttle, what would people think of him? He punched in the launch sequence.

The shuttle trip down to the surface of the large moon the _Enterprise_ was now in orbit around took less than ten minutes. Recalling Spock's words about keeping a transporter lock on him put a humorless smile on his face. He'd ordered the _Enterprise_ to keep her shields up regardless of what happened. He knew after his encounter with Spock's counterpart on Delta Vega that Spock did feel. He felt his stomach twisting. Boy, did Spock feel. And he'd witnessed those normally hidden emotions come to the surface when he'd died. He looked over his shoulder back at the warp core sitting mere meters away from him. His fingers went white as he clutched the armrest tightly.

"-mander Spock to Captain Kirk. Come in. Are you receiving us? Jim, are you alright?"

He jumped in his seat. He knitted his brow and checked the comm panel—there was an incoming signal from the ship. How had he not heard it?

"Kirk here," he said while checking all the sensor readings. "Everything is fine down here. I'm about to initiate the landing sequence. I want Commander Scott to stand by on one channel in case I need his input."

There was a slight pause before Spock acknowledged the orders curtly. Jim bit the inside of cheek. After all that had happened after Pike's death—because he'd let his emotions rule over his actions—how could he let them interfere with his duty again? Whatever example he set, his whole crew might follow suit, first and foremost his bridge officers.

The shuttle touched down on the moon's rocky surface with a jolt.

"Computer, lower shields," he commanded.

He leapt out of his seat, strode over to Scotty's portable trans-warp beaming device. The warp core shielding reflected the interior of the shuttle. Kneeling down in front of it he took a deep breath and then initiated the warp core containment field, before powering it up. It emitted a humming sound and Jim felt the whole shuttle vibrate beneath him. Was it meant to do that? Maybe he should have let Scotty do this, he thought.

"Scotty, it's on," he said, his voice louder than he'd intended. "I'll attempt to beam the canister down to the planet. You have the coordinates. Monitor whether it arrives or not. On my mark start broadcasting the interference signal."

"Ready when you are, Sir," Scotty replied.

Jim knelt down next to the device on the floor in front of him. "Now!"

He operated the controls and the container disappeared in a beam of light—as did the warp core cladding. Shielding his eyes from the bright light with one hand he stumbled back towards the cockpit. He could tell now that the cladding hadn't disappeared, it was melting in places.

"Scotty! It's melting!" he shouted.

"What's melting?" That was Spock's voice.

An awfully familiar blue light flooded the shuttle. _A Captain cannot cheat death_, he thought. Harrison's blood had bought him extra time in the universe, but this had been how he'd meant to die. Having been snatched back from Death's clutches, the Grim Reaper had simply been biding his time until the circumstances were right for another attempt to collect his soul.

Spock's voice broke over the comm link like a hail storm. "Captain? _Jim!_"

The emotions in his voice broke through Jim's shocked calm and he slumped back against the shuttle's interior wall.

His throat felt dry. "The containment is melting away."

"We'll beam you out, Ca-," Scotty replied, but he was cut off mid-sentence.

Through the onset of a pounding headache Jim staggered to the main controls. He tried to hail the _Enterprise_ but the comm line was dead. Next would be the nausea, he knew. While he still had energy he had to make sure the trans-warp beaming device was not posing a danger to the ship. Then he'd grab a spacesuit and get the hell out of the shuttle.

* * *

"Did you just turn off life-support and the communications array?" Scotty shouted at Spock, who ignored him.

"Commander Spock to Lieutenant Uhura, what is the status of the test?"

"It's too early to say, Commander. The deflector dish is running on full power now, but with trans-warp beaming there is no signal we can track. It's all inter-dimensional. If the container doesn't show up at the coordinates within the next five minutes we should be good."

"I am aware of the physics, Lieutenant. Keep me informed, Spock out."

Even with life-support turned off they didn't have enough power to beam the Captain back onboard. The deflector was consuming the vast majority of their power. He lowered their shields. They'd have to be lowered anyway in order to beam the Captain back on board.

"An additional 5% engine output is required to use the transporters," he said, fixing his eyes on Scotty.

The engineer held up both his hands in front of him and took a step back. "I really don't think we should mess with the power output without first shutting the system down and restarting-."

"But you could do it?"

"Aye, sure. I really don't think-."

"Do it. Now."

Scotty scrambled to the engineering console. The signals Spock was looking at indicated that Jim hadn't left the shuttle. Spock's heart was pumping too fast. He gripped the command chair tightly, eyes fixed on the power indicator. When it finally turned green he barked the orders to have the Captain beamed on board. As he dashed to the turbolift Scotty grabbed his upper arm.

"Sir," Scotty said and Spock spun around to face him. The human didn't let go of his arm.

"Spock, I scanned the shuttle just now. There's no way he was exposed to anything under 5000 rads. He won't make it."

Spock barely heard the last sentence. Without even acknowledging the commander he shrugged him off and stepped into the turbolift. Not all hope was lost, he knew. The disruptor blast hadn't killed Jim, this might not either.

But logic didn't help when the memories of his friend's death barged their way to the front of his mind, dragging up with them all the emotions associated with them—all the emotions he'd held back since Vulcan's destruction. When the turbolift came to a halt again Spock's hands were visibly shaking and upon entering sickbay his breathing was visibly labored.

"Spock!"

It was Jim. Spock rushed to his bedside, ignoring doctor McCoy.

"How did the test go?"

The Captain's question caused Spock to blink. "It is not yet complete," he replied. If it was, Nyota would've informed him.

His eyes rove over his friend's body to check if he had any additional wounds. When his gaze returned to the Captain's face he found his eyes shuttered.

"Doctor?"

McCoy stepped next to him. "I'm doing all I can for him. Blood transfusions, everything. The cell damage is extreme. He's way beyond medical help."

"Your prognosis?" Spock pressed.

For a moment the doctor said nothing. Then his eyes narrowed. "I don't know. It was less than what he was exposed to last time. Way less. I think he'll make it, but that's not really my medical opinion. Just... a feeling."

Spock found himself nodding. He reached out and took one of Jim's hands in his. It comforted him to feel the life still flowing in those veins, but they were hot—several degrees above average human body temperature.

"Commander Spock," Uhura's voice sounded through a comm channel, "we managed to prevent the beaming of the container. It's not on the shuttle either though. It's gone completely. We lost the dilithium crystal on the shuttle as expected. Commander Scott also reported damage to the _Enterprise's_ warp core crystals, due to turning up the power output above the recommended limit."

"Acknowledged," he replied.

They'd saved the captain, he thought. And that was what mattered. Not a logical thought, he knew, but he could fight the illogical thoughts once he had his body and mind under a semblance of control. Jim brought out emotions in him that he hadn't thought he was capable of feeling ever again. He wasn't sure yet whether that was a good or a bad thing.

"Acting-Captain Spock to the bridge. Mr. Sulu, resume course to the Klingon border." He then added, "Maximum warp speed possible," and hoped that would turn out to be more than warp factor 1.

* * *

Spock's face was a blur to Jim, as was the rest of the world. Bones couldn't tell him how long it would be before his vision returned to normal again, since as far as Bones was concerned that all depended on his body's healing powers. If his vision didn't improve and cataracts formed in his eyes, Bones could fix that easily. So he wasn't worried.

"What's our situation? We're at the Klingon border, right? Any contact from Starfleet? Sightings of Klingons?" Jim asked.

"ETA is forty-nine hours, ten minutes-," Spock started to reply.

"Hang on! What happened? We were only a couple of hours away!"

"We had to stop for engine maintenance."

"Maintenance," Jim repeated in a flat tone of voice.

"Hairline cracks in our main dilithium crystal. Mr. Scott has made adjustments to the system to compensate."

"... and?"

"He does not think it wise to travel above warp factor 3."

"You can keep talking, Mr. Spock without me prompting you. I can't currently read the report you've surely sent me about all this."

As Jim listened to clinical, logical reasons why Spock had gotten Scotty to increase engine power, he wished that he was able to focus on Spock's face. He wanted to look him in the eye and force Spock to admit that it had had nothing to do with logic.

"We have spare dilithium crystals, don't we?" Jim asked.

"Indeed. Had we replaced this crystal though, the calibrations would have taken too long. It would have taken 32 additional hours to travel to the border."

Jim nodded. "Understood. If the deflector uses so much power to broadcast the interference signal, will we be able to make use of it under these circumstances?"

"If we are aiming it only at a ship, rather than a whole planet, we should be able to do so with our current power capacity."

There was nothing else he could think to ask. Eventually Spock excused himself.

"Would you believe it?" Bones said, stepping up to take Spock's place. "Cold as ice again."

"Huh?"

"He was pretty torn up about your injuries when they first brought you down to sickbay. Now he's decided all that doesn't matter apparently."

"He does care, Bones."

"Very occasionally. When he temporarily forgets that caring is illogical."

Jim didn't want to engage the doctor on that point, because it was a fair enough point to make.

"How am I doing?" he inquired instead.

"You're healing even faster than I predicted. The combination of the treatments I'm giving you and your... enhanced body is yielding fantastic results."

"I'm one of them now," Jim stated, staring up at the blurry ceiling.

"One of who?"

"The augments. I'm like Harrison."

"You're nothing like him."

"I think I am. The augments wreaked havoc on Earth during the Eugenics War. They weren't raised to be tyrants, their ambitions came about due to their superior biology. A biology I now share."

"I'll call security and have them throw you in the brig then, shall I? Spare me, kid." Bones jabbed Jim with a hypospray. "I'm still analyzing the results from all your tests. Understanding you is our best chance to come up with a way to stop Harrison and the other augments."

The blur of the ceiling started to tilt to one side and started spinning. "Was that some kind of tranquilizer or anesthetic?"

"You'll wake up before we reach the border, don't worry."

To be continued...


	5. Chapter 5

Spock was in bed, but he wasn't sleeping. For now he'd given up on both meditation and sleep. Instead he'd retrieved a PADD and was sending messages to various departments. He'd tasked people in astrometrics and sensors to come up with options on where precisely to drop out of warp. It would need to be as close to the specified coordinates as possible while also avoiding immediate detection by enemy ships. Communications were charged with changing all password and access protocols, as well as coming up with new encryption algorithms in case they encountered other Starfleet ships that were not under augment control. He was about to reply to a message from engineering when his door chime rang.

He got up and although he was wearing nothing apart from standard issue pajama pants he said, "Enter."

It wasn't Nyota though.

"Doctor McCoy, please excuse my lack of attire."

McCoy strode in and the door closed behind him with a swish. "Why would I care? I've seen you wearing less. I'm your doctor."

Spock cocked a questioning eyebrow at him.

"I'm here," the doctor explained, "because of Jim."

"Do you have a prediction when he will be returning to duty?"

"No, goddamnit! Is that all you can think about? When he'll be ready for duty again?"

Spock put his PADD down. "Did you come here to insult me?"

"No, I didn't," McCoy said quietly. "Thank you for saving Jim. A minute or two longer in the shuttle... there are limits even to his new healing abilities."

Before Spock could reply to that, McCoy continued. "And don't you dare give me that same damned list of logical arguments that you gave Jim. 'Crew morale would have been damaged' and so on _my ass_. What do you care for crew morale?"

"Personnel in all sections must carry out their duties at maximum efficiency-."

"Bullshit! You saved him because you care about him!"

Spock took a step towards him. "Doctor McCoy, I accept your gratitude for saving his life, but I cannot fathom your reasoning in arguing with me about my motives."

"Because the Spock I used to know would've left Jim down there to die. I want to know who you are now—whether I can trust you to put your logic aside again in future when necessary."

Spock couldn't meet the doctor's stare anymore. McCoy had seen him at Jim's bedside when his control had been at its most tenuous. "I admit that my emotions did influence my judgment."

McCoy had a large grin on his face. "And will you allow them to influence your decisions again in future?"

Spock didn't feel like he had permitted his emotions to do any such thing though. They had overpowered him. It was not a voluntary decision.

"No," he replied, "I am a Vulcan. Logic and reason are of paramount importance."

McCoy rolled his eyes. "I should have known you'd say that."

"Was that all?" Spock pressed.

"No."

When no elaboration was immediately forthcoming, Spock raised one of his eyebrows.

"Jim is worried that he's now an augment, that he's like Harrison," the doctor explained.

"Is he?"

"Medically speaking?" McCoy huffed. "I guess so. What does your logic have to say about all that?"

The doctor's tone was soft, so Spock decided that for once McCoy actually was interested in his rational thoughts on an issue.

"While our biology shapes and influences our destiny in many ways, there are also countless ways in which the phrase 'biology is not destiny' is accurate. Jim was not born an augment. And while that does not mean that he is unable to develop the same destructive ambitions and lack of morals that the majority of augments of the 20th century had, I do find it highly unlikely that he will. Jim's life will be strongly influenced by this from now onwards though."

He saw McCoy was slowly nodding in agreement. "It does make you think, doesn't it? Humanity had these tools at their fingertips, a way to prevent so much illness and sickness... to enhance our minds."

"All based on the ideology of eradicating that which was deemed to be inferior within the human gene pool."

"When you put it like that, there's no wonder they see no problem in 'eradicating' non-augments."

"I predict the Captain will adjust and he will change. However, he will not become 'one of them'."

After McCoy had left his quarters Spock sat down cross legged on the floor. Turning his senses inward he checked for any emotions to suppress. He found some concern for the Captain.

* * *

Jim made his way straight from sickbay to the bridge. His muscles felt like he'd just run the academy marathon backwards—twice. Apart from a general lack of energy he was not suffering any other ill effects though. His vision had returned fully and Bones had given him enough meds to ease his headache—though he judged his chances of keeping food down were low.

Was he just imagining it or had he just caught another crew member staring openly at him? He hurried to the next turbolift.

"Captain on the bridge!" someone said as he stepped out of the lift. All around him officers and crewmembers beamed brightly at him. Spock got up out of the command chair and stood to one side of it.

Jim grinned broadly. "Mr. Sulu, how long until we reach the border?"

"Good to have you back, Sir. And you're just in time. We'll be dropping out of warp in five minutes."

At that Jim sat down and clenched his jaw.

"We will arrive on the Klingon side of the border at the edge of a dust field," Spock said. "Assuming Klingon sensor technology is not vastly superior to our own, the dust will shield us from enemy sensor readings for at least 70 seconds. This will allow us to scan the area and take evasive actions—or go back to warp if necessary."

There were downsides to Spock's plan, Jim thought. He had read all the reports in detail and their scan of the dust field was a year old. If other ships were hiding in it... they wouldn't find out until it was too late. Dropping out of warp _into_ another ship was not something anyone from either crew would survive. This was one of those times were Jim had to remind himself that this wasn't "Spock taking risks". No, Spock was logical and rational. But when you were hurtling through space at three billion kilometers an hour and wanted to avoid crashing your spaceship into another plans like these simply didn't seem logical, no matter who'd come up with them. Not that he thought Spock had got it wrong. If it had been up to him, their plan might have been wilder still.

The bridge was uncharacteristically silent until Sulu finally announced that he was taking them out of warp. On the viewscreen the dust cloud that now surrounded them shimmered in azure and turquoise.

"Sensor readings?" Jim demanded.

"We're too deep in the dust cloud to accurately say," Spock replied.

Kirk heaved himself up out of the chair, despite his protesting muscles. "Take us to the edge, Mr Sulu. One quarter impulse."

"Captain, I detec-," Spock started to say.

The bridge shook and the dust particles onscreen reflected the deep red of the blast that had hit them.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Jim shouted. "Klingons?"

"It's the USS Mandela," Spock replied, "and they appear to have ceased fire."

Jim turned to Uhura to give a command, but she'd already turned in her seat. "They're hailing us, Captain."

"On screen!"

The face that appeared on screen was not that of a Klingon, but that of Captain Qaderi—she'd lectured in tactics at the academy in Jim's second year. Although Jim relaxed his hold on the railing he'd been steadying himself on, he didn't let go of it.

Keeping his tone overly formal he said, "Captain Qaderi, we were expecting to be surrounded by Klingon ships. It's good to see a friendly face. I suspect our sudden appearance must have been alarming."

"It did indeed, Kirk. As you can see, you were not the only one to receive orders to come to this location."

And that was Qaderi through and through. In one sentence she'd let Kirk know that she'd been ordered to these coordinates by Starfleet too, as had other ships. And since they were lying in wait to fire on the other ships that might turn up here, Kirk could surmise that just out of view were a group of Klingons pointing disrupters at her and her crew.

"Well, no damage done, luckily. And now we can wait together for the Klingons to show up," Kirk replied with fake joviality.

"I suggest you beam over to my ship, so that we can discuss tactics," Qaderi continued.

For a heartbeat or two Kirk stared at the screen. Then he let go of the handrail. "As you wish. I will be over shortly, Kirk out."

To be continued...


	6. Chapter 6

trigger warning: strangulation

**– The Second Eugenics War – Chapter 6 – **

"Keptin!" Chekov turned away from his station. "It is most likely a trap!"

Jim was still staring at the now blank screen. He was biting his lip.

Spock had come to stand beside him. "I concur with the ensign, it would be unwise for you to beam over. I estimate the chances of your surviv—"

Jim snapped his head around to face his first officer. "It's not my survival you should concern yourself with."

Spock's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. The intensity of those eyes made Jim's throat constrict. He took a deep breath.

"We can't risk lowering our shields even for a second," Jim continued, his voice sounding ragged around the edge. "That's what they're watching out for. We'd be boarded within seconds." He tore his eyes away from Spock's.

"Uhura, you're with me. We'll take a shuttle half-way." He didn't elaborate despite Spock's pointed eyebrow. "Spock, you have the bridge. Your priority is the safety of the ship. We may be the last Starfleet vessel actually under Starfleet control."

Jim strode to the turbo lift, Uhura at his heels.

The minute the doors closed he slumped against the lift wall, wincing.

"Captain, are you alright?"

"Just some sore muscles," he grunted.

Uhura ordered the lift to the main hangar bay, which caused a mirthless grin to spread across Jim's features.

"Of course, you also took Qaderi's classes, didn't you?"

"A year before you did, sir," Uhura said, standing to attention, though a small smile tugged at the edges of her lips, as she glanced at him sideways.

They'd reached their destination and Jim exited ahead of her. "Make the necessary arrangements with Mr Scott, then meet me on board the smuggler's vessel."

* * *

They'd captured the ship a while back and Scotty had repaired her to the best of his abilities. Uhura sat in the pilot seat next to Jim and steered the small craft towards the agreed coordinates. Scotty would weaken the _Enterprise's_ shields at the aft nacelle just enough for them to penetrate the shields at that point.

"Maximum shields!" Jim turned his attention away from the schematics of the USS _Mandela_ to brace himself for the impact.

Their small craft shuddered as the screen displayed the lightshow of the clash of their shields against the _Enterprise's_. Eventually the ship was halfway through.

"Kirk to _Enterprise_. Commander Spock, we'll be dropping forward shields only to beam out of here. The _Enterprise_ should still be fully protected. However, the Klingons might beam onto the smuggler's vessel. We'll lock controls and set a course that'll take the ship all the way through the _Enterprise's_ shields."

"We will not easily be able to beam you back aboard," Spock replied.

"Leave getting back to the _Enterprise_ to us, Commander."

The reply was a clipped "Yes, sir."

Jim's eyes flicked to Uhura's face and the lines of tension on it.

He waited for her to meet his eyes. "Right, let's do this. Let's take back the _Mandela_. I need you to listen out for anything the Klingons might say to one another that could give us an advantage. I trust you to recognize what information that might be."

Uhura swallowed hard and nodded. Jim's senses were already heightening due to the wash of chemicals that his body was producing. His muscle aches were almost forgotten.

Uhura contacted the _Mandela_. Jim took a deep breath. It was quite possible that they were beaming themselves to their own execution. He didn't say so outloud, but he knew when he caught Uhura's eye that he didn't need to. Uhura was determined to follow his lead and take the risk. His heart was hammering in his chest and he clenched his jaw. Seconds later they materialized on the other ship's transporter pads.

Jim let out a startled breath and his eye widened. There were no Klingons. Qaderi and two other uniformed Starfleet officers were in the transporter room. Then his eyes focused in on a gash on Qaderi's brow that was almost hidden by her hair.

"Welcome to the _Mandela_, Captain Kirk, Lieutenant Uhura," Qaderi said, nodding at both of them in turn. "I'm afraid this location is not safe. The ship is a battleground and we need to run before the Klingons realize that I've beamed our security escort into space."

Her tone was unhurried and soft, but her eyes blazed as fiercely as the sun did during the Afghan summer. Jim jumped off the pad, was handed a phaser by an officer who introduced himself as Commander White. White turned the dial on his phaser and the glow in it changed from blue to red. He opened the transporter room door, weapon at the ready, and went ahead. He gave a hand sign to indicate all was clear and the others joined him in the corridor.

As much as Jim wanted to know everything that was currently going on, he knew this was not a time to talk and potentially blow their cover—a Klingon guard might be standing just behind the next corner. Jim got the feeling that they were heading towards main engineering. After a long few minutes of dodging and occasionally quietly disposing of Klingon guards they reached their destination; he'd guessed correctly. The moment they entered engineering they were darting left and right to take cover from phaser fire.

Uhura crouched next to him and Qaderi. "The Klingon's have contacted the bridge and told them we're here."

"That won't do them any good. The bridge is already ours," Qaderi replied.

Jim furrowed his brow and stared at her, mouth gaping. "It was definitely under Klingon control just a quarter of an hour ago!"

Qaderi rolled her eyes at him. "What were you thinking? That I was just waiting for you to rescue me and my crew? The arrival of the _Enterprise_ was the moment I'd been waiting for—we needed something to distract the Klingons to take back the ship. Believe me when I say that Klingon programmers are amongst some of the best in the galaxy. But this here," she reached into her pocket and held up a data disc, "contains a virus that will wreak havoc with Klingon code. Developed by Starfleet Intelligence over the course of three years. All I needed was for the Klingons to be distracted enough for me to retrieve it. Then I used it against them to get my ship to respond to my commands again."

"Well, I'm glad we were a good distraction then."

"Captains!" Uhura interrupted. "They're talking about retreating onto another ship that's approaching our location."

"Who's ship?" Qaderi asked, the pitch of her voice higher than before.

Uhura bit her lip and turned her head slightly. "I'm not sure. Something... Duras?"

Both Jim and Uhura turned their attention to Qaderi, who had closed her eyes. Jim glanced at her hand in which she was still holding the data disc. He saw tensed muscles and knuckles that were turning white.

"You really don't know, do you?" A humorless laugh escaped her dry throat. "It's Hroth, from the house of Duras. He's taken control of both the Klingon Empire and the majority of the Federation. I think he's got control of some very advanced technology, maybe something from the future. He can beam onto planets, onto ships that are at warp even. That's how they invaded Earth—"

Jim could see the golden glow out of the corner of his eye. He did what he did best, and without thinking he snatched the disc out of Qaderi's hand and leapt. He bounded for the nearest group of Klingons and threw himself at the tallest and held on as the transporter light enveloped them both.

* * *

Well, what had Jim really expected? The Klingon had not exactly been happy and so now he was nursing a bruised jaw. He'd been able to the slip the disc away up his sleeve though, so it didn't matter that they'd taken his phaser off him. Not that he had a plan yet, but at least he was here, on the enemy ship. And in a way he was armed. He wondered if Harrison was here too. If this ship was carrying the ruler of the Empire, then Harrison was most likely here.

The tip of a Klingon phaser was jabbed into him from behind.

"Where are you taking me?" Jim asked.

One of the Klingons grunted something in reply that he couldn't understand. They soon arrived at their destination though. It was the bridge. Everyone he'd seen so far had been Klingon and things were no different on the bridge. A short Klingon got up out of the captain's chair as they stepped out of the lift.

"Captain Kirk, it is a pleasure to meet you," he said in accentless Federation Standard.

"Hroth of the house of Duras," Jim replied with a nod of acknowledgement.

"Very good. So we can skip lengthy introductions and get right down to business. I have weapons your Starfleet ships can't even dream of in this Bird of Prey. They're locked onto both the USS _Enterprise_ and the USS _Mandela_."

"You won't be able to use me as a bargaining chip, my crew know better than that." The minute the words had left his mouth though, Jim felt a small pang of worry that he might be wrong on that account. Would Spock and Bones do the logical thing and leave him behind if it came to it? And why was it Spock's decisions he was suddenly most worried about? He remembered the tears streaming down his friend's pale face.

Hroth burst out laughing though and made quite a spectacle of it, encouraging his bridge crew to join in. "This," he said, addressing the bridge, "is what humans are like. This is why they are so weak. They do not know how to die honorably. It actually needs to be said that some humans might leave behind someone who has managed to get themselves captured by the enemy. Pathetic!"

"And are Klingons so scared of humans," Jim spat back, "that it's necessary to reaffirm constantly how superior you Klingons really are? If we were as inferior as you like to pretend, you wouldn't be trying to loudly convince yourself and your crew of that fact. Did some humans get to you?" He watched the rage build in Hroth with every word he spoke. "Where is Harrison?"

Hroth strode up to him and Jim knew then that he'd verbally punched the Klingon in his weak spot. Unfortunately Hroth responded by literally punching him in his weak spot. Hroth then shouted something and Jim was hauled off the bridge.

He let his captors drag him until he got his breath back. "I can walk on my own now."

They dropped him onto the floor like a sack of potatoes. Jim faked having trouble getting up. He needed to get away from the guards. With Hroth's weapons aimed at the _Enterprise_ and the _Mandela_ he didn't have time to waste. As the guards leant down again to pick him up he punched up at one of them, hitting his chin. Jim reached with his other hand to take back his phaser and shot the other guard before he could react. Without looking back he sprinted back down the corridor the way they'd come. He stopped in front of a control panel and inserted the data disc containing the virus. To his left, the guard he'd punched was on his feet again, to his right a group of four Klingons were approaching, weapons aimed at him. He stepped away from the terminal, let go of his phaser which clattered to the floor loudly, and held his hands up high.

Never in his life had he wished so desperately that he spoke Klingon, because he could hear calls being made over the intercom. A guard was at the terminal. He pulled out the small disc and waved it in Jim's face, shouting at him continuously. When it became clear that no amount of shouting was going to cause him to suddenly understand Klingon they tied his hands behind his back and led him back to the bridge.

On the bridge Klingons were shouting at each other, at their equipment, and possibly at their own beards too.

"Do you realize what you just unleashed on us all?" Hroth wailed at him.

Hroth walked up to him and grabbed him by his shirt. Hroth's small stature was compensated for by his bulging muscles. He hefted Jim off the floor and threw him across the bridge. Jim was left completely winded and curled himself up into a ball, gasping for breath. After a while he noticed the noise around him had died down. It was eerily quiet. He looked up. Harrison stood over him, staring down his nose at Jim.

"Why, thank you Captain Kirk for the timely rescue," Harrison said with a sneer. "Although my escape from Klingon captivity was an inevitability in the long term, your intervention will certainly enable us to hasten the takeover plans. For all the talk of the famed Klingon conquerors, even with our help, they were ever so slow at overthrowing the Federation for us. Now we can continue in a more efficient manner. And I have no more use for you."

Jim rolled onto his side and tried to jump up, but he wasn't quick enough and Harrison kicked him in the stomach. He tasted blood in his mouth. Next he knew Harrison had picked him up by his neck. He couldn't breathe, but he would die before that became a problem as Harrison was effectively cutting off the blood flow to his brain. Stars were already starting to appear at the edges of his vision and the world went quiet as he lost his hearing. He vaguely noticed a figure next to Harrison talking to him.

The world spun around Jim and then he seemed to be looking at the floor. The blood rushed back to his head. He realized Harrison had dropped him. Why didn't he kill me? Every breath hurt through his sore throat. He was picked up by two augments and dragged off the bridge for the second time that day.

Jim eyed them both. Could he take them both on? He had to keep in mind that they were both superhuman in strength. Whatever abilities he'd received from the infusion of Harrison's blood, it did not seem to include the same strength that Harrison possessed. Before Jim could formulate an escape plan he was pressed face first up against a corridor wall by one of the augments as the other shackled his ankles. They untied his hands only to apply stronger cuffs. Then he was shoved through a doorway. The door shut firmly behind him. On the other side the augment's footsteps retreated back down the corridor.

They'd taken him to some kind of brig it seemed. Did Klingons regularly take prisoners? Was this the ship's actual brig or some storage locker? He pulled on the cuffs that held his hands in place behind his back. Solid, but they left him some room to maneuver.

A sound of clanking made Jim startle from his thoughts. The room was dark, he couldn't locate the source of the noise. Had Harrison thought it would be more amusing for a Klingon to kill him in here, in the brig? He wished Uhura had been with him. Maybe she could have reasoned with the Klingons, maybe then none of this would have happened.

There was no hiding in the room but Jim positioned himself so that he wasn't backed up against a wall and would have some room to maneuver. As the other cell occupant stepped up to him in the dim light, Jim could see his face. He was human.

"My name is Khan Noonien Singh."

To be continued...


End file.
